Ah, the familiar sound of gaslighting. That is the case of Jack Petocz, a 19-year-old former college student who was just expelled from Vanderbilt University for supposedly “peacefully protesting the genocide” that is happening in Gaza. I have commented on what is actually happening in full where Israel is defending itself against future incursions from possible terror attacks by a resurgent Hamas by destroying the terror infrastructure that was used from hijacked humanitarian funds, but to repeat the entire story would be to detract from the story at hand. Claiming he’s done nothing wrong, Petocz has decided to admonish his now former university for condemning his behavior which he claims he’s done nothing wrong. Security camera footage shows an entirely different situation entirely.
According to the footage, Petocz was part of a cohort of students that attacked a security guard and staff that were inside of the building where they were protesting, eventually leading to a window getting broken. This behavior would be unacceptable in a private business and would lead to a formal arrest if someone were to attempt it, so the idea that vandalism is acceptable on taxpayer-funded property is equally absurd. Nevertheless, the gaslighting in his post which is drawn out in an emotionally manipulative post suggests that Vanderbilt was condemning students for supporting Palestinians, yet allowing sexual predators to remain on campus. I can imagine that any future efforts to get back on campus after making a comment like that are going to be well-received (that was sarcasm in case it was missed).
The issue I find going through Petocz’s Twitter as I dig deeper is that the narratives being spewed out are as far-left as they are illogical. Ignoring the fact that the Palestinian Authority is notoriously anti-gay, in which Petocz claims he is homosexual, there is the suggestion that homophobia is the United States not flying LGBT pride flags at embassies around the world. That was never something that promoted LGBT acceptance as it did force taxpayers to fund promotion of a certain minority group, whether or not the intention was well meaning or not, and only served to make those who were moderately opposed to LGBT issues even more so. This is a microcosm of why people oppose the BDS supporters within the Democratic Party so heavily across the country: they spread their radicalism to where it interferes with your everyday life, and you aren’t given an off-ramp from it. Vanderbilt, like other universities, was probably trying to keep it’s funding from being taken away because of people like Petocz but didn’t care about him making a pointless protest, but his decision to attack a security guard to occupy a building posed a threat to other students who might run afoul of the activist’s politics.
The tragedy in this situation is that Petocz seems to be a capable political organizer based on his previous social media posts, but his behavioral controls are sub-par. While other colleges may be willing to accept him if he can have a redemption arc and prove that he is capable of apologizing for committing an act of violence, he appears unwilling to do so at this time. Until he does so, he will remain hobbled by with just a high school degree as someone with some college education but no degree to quantify the level of education he received. Furthermore, these violent tendencies are going to make him an absolute pain in Democratic offices to tolerate sending out for messaging because he will, at some point, have to message to Jewish voters who are overwhelmingly against the violence perpetrated by Hamas against Israel. One can have concerns about any foreign conflict in a debate setting, but the arguments put forward by the Ceasefire Now crowd refuse to even acknowledge that innocent Israelis were massacred, instead calling them colonizers. That is not the brew for a successful left-wing coalition builder who wants to get back a highly educated, highly organized segment of the vote like the Jewish vote.
Jack Petocz (@Jack_Petocz) / X (twitter.com)
Colleges could lose federal funding if they don’t curb antisemitism and Islamophobia : NPR
The Conservatarian Millennial 